The King of Pain
by singing darkness
Summary: While searching for the spirit medallion, Link meets a highly skilled desert wanderer who claims past connections with the Gerudo and the King of Thieves, Ganondorf. Rated for character death and mild violence/language
1. Traveling

_Hello readers. This is my first ever (well first ever typed up) fan fic, however thats no excuse for a bad fic so any **CONSTRUCTIVE** criticism would be greatly appreciated. I have future chapters planed and a few typed up but i will probably only bother to type the rest if someone asks me to. So yeh, if you like it say so and i will do more, if you don't, say why not and i'll try to improve it for next time._

_Dedicated to Dancing Darkness, without whom i wouldn't be here. (And whose fics you should read)_

_Enjoy_

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_The King of Pain_

1. Travelling

The sun's rays beat down on his back with the heat of a thousand fire arrows - he did not care. The sand whipped across his face like millions of tiny needles - he didn't feel a thing. He had been running for longer than he cared to remember; yet his destination was still nothing but a tiny dot on the horizon - he did not waver. He could not be stopped. He would never give up.

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Link's breath caught in his throat as he studied the ravine below him. "That's a long drop Epona" he murmured, "Where are the damn workmen" He could see their tent on the far side of the bridge which was virtually non-existent apart from the posts that marked where it should have been.

"We'll have to jump" he concluded. It was further than he had ever jumped with Epona before and if it was anything less than the future of the entire Hylian people at stake he would have turned back to Kakariko and hired some bridge masons. But it wasn't, so he didn't. He wheeled Epona round and headed back for a run-up.

Urging Epona into a gallop, he sped towards the ravine, loving the feeling of adrenaline as they sprang from the very edge of the cliff, feeling the wind flying through his hair and clothes and feeling his heart pound in his chest as they came closer to solid ground. Then they began to drop.

The edge of the ravine was rising to meet them but the angle was too steep. They were going to miss the edge by mere inches, crashing into the side of the cliff. Panic started to set in as the Link's world crawled to a standstill. He could see the edge rising up just that bit too fast, hear the rapids roaring below, calling him to his death.

'So this is how it ends' he thought, it was almost funny, 'after everything I've done - all the trials I've overcome - it ends because some idiotic workmen didn't do their job and I couldn't quite make the jump and-' suddenly he felt Epona's hind legs buck and was flung forwards and upwards, scraping his legs on the edge of the cliff. He landed with a thud and rolled over just in time to see Epona's hooves disappearing over the edge. "NO" he cried as he lunged to the edge. He saw Epona falling backwards, hooves flailing. Saw her hit the water with a sickening splash and watched her limp form as she was dragged under by the raging currents.

For half an hour he lay there, staring into the churning waters. He played the scene in his head. She had saved him. Given her life so that he could continue. If he had just been faster when he landed maybe he could have grabbed a hoof.

"Yeah right," he muttered bitterly, "What could you have done, pulled a fully grown horse over a cliff on your own strength? Get real."

But he couldn't help thinking he had seen something in those eyes. Fear but also…what? Friendship? Sadness? Companionship? Love? Perhaps he was imagining things. He tried to convince himself that she may have survived, maybe washed up on Lake Hylia. But then the images would come flooding back. She had been unconscious when he saw her go under. She was gone, and he had never realized how much she meant to him until it was too late.

He lay there for another hour or so, then got up, and entered the tent.

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_Hope you enjoyed it._

_My appologies to any Epona fans but i needed something fairly dramatic for the first chapter of my first fic._

_Reviewers get cyber cookies!_

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	2. Nearing

_Oh what the heck, lets upload it anyway. I was going to wait for a few more views and a couple of reviews before i put anything else up but who cares. I've got one review (Even if it is by a friend who had read it before and doesn't really count) and thats good enough for me. Besides it's only a short chapter and i felt ashamed looking at my weedy little word count. At least this makes it four figures. Enjoy_

_Dedicated to Not For Lack Of Trying. The last line of defence between me and a horde of angry reviews complaining about my poor language skills._

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2. Nearing

He was getting closer now and, whilst still in the distance, he could now make out the vague outline of the fortress he knew so well. He was running over various strategies in his head for his arrival. He was not so naive to think they would welcome him with open arms. He knew they would have orders to kill him on sight. He paused a second.

Something in the air had changed.

All the old familiar feelings were still there but there was something else, something foreign, something…Hylian. New ideas leapt into his head and he quickened his pace. He would need to act fast.

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The desert wanderer wasn't the only one who knew of the new arrival. Mutoh, the boss of the carpenters, was also very much aware of this, having been abruptly shaken awake and pinned against the wall by one very angry Link.

"Where are the rest of your workers?" he demanded.

"I don't know, they went to the Gerudo fortress and never came back" stammered a now wide awake and rather terrified Mutoh. He wasn't one for getting scared easily but when you're pinned up against the wall by a strong, angry bloke with a sword in his hand it was an understandable reaction.

"Take me there" Link commanded, stepping back to allow the dishevelled foreman room to leave the tent.

But Mutoh stayed put. "I'm not going near that place. Not even under threat of death. You hear horrible tales of what they do to men there." Regaining his composure he added "All coward's talk of course. Pah, wouldn't surprise me if they were cooking my men over a spit roast right now. Serve them right the bunch of lazy layabouts" Link sighed, clearly he wasn't going to get any help from this man.

"Can you at least point me in the right direction then."

"Turn right after leaving the tent and it's about four miles over that ridge." Link turned and left. "I wouldn't go there though." Mutoh called after him "I've heard they torture people for months before they let you die." He paused "All rubbish of course," he muttered more to himself than anyone else as Link was already heading over the ridge and out of sight.

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_Something i only just noticed is that nowhere in these chapters, my other typed up chapters or my future plans do I mention Navi. Since i can't think of any simple solution without constantly having to put in additional, unnecessary and quite frankly annoying dialogue (just like the actual game) I have decided to simply ignore her existence. You read right, in this story Link does not have a fairy. I realize i probably just lost every reader who's a fan of Navi but lets be honest. How many fans does Navi really have?_

_P.S if anyone really is strongly opposed to this just say so and i will have a harder think about what i can do about it._

_Remember reviewers get internet cookies (and not those little ones either, think the really big ones you get from Millies cookies that are more like pizzas.) Oh yes._


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